The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-03-16

The sun was setting. Up on the hillside
the windows of the old stone house shone
glorifed
There were six of the Carstone children
under the big willow by the mill race that
afternoon. Names and ages respectively:
Shirley, Il; Tom, 9, Percy, Z; Brownie, 5;
Pet, g. and Baby, the ruler of them all, not
quite months.
The old stone house stood upon hillside.
1t is there still, for that matter. 1t was near
a century old when our Carstones lived there.
A great, cool, double porch extended across
its front The little windows were ike the
loopholes of a fort. The walls were foot
thick. There were deep, sunny window seats,
where generations of kittens and Carstone
| babies alike curled up and went to sleep.
The house had belonged to the family al
most from the pioneer days The grim, fort
like walls had echoed many and many year
to the sweetest music of all the earth-the
laughter of children. Shirley Carstone's
| grandmother was born there, and her father.
The family history, as far back as could be
known, had been an especially bright and
| sunny one. So much of innocent mirth had
sounded through those wide old rooms; so
| many years of gentle, tender, happy home
life had passed there, that the very walls
themselves seemed TO have caught at length
some of the joy and light. 1t was a fine,
| strong blooded race, with never a hereditary
| ailment of mind or body, never an inherited
| faw of meanness or weakness. No Carstone
had ever shown himself a coward or been
| faithless to friend There was a knightli-
| ness, a gentleness, a courage and purity in
| the blood. 1t ran through the men and wo-
men alike.
Great orchards and fields surrounded the
stone house. At the foot of the bill wide,
| deep brook ran, heavily fringed with beeches
| and shiny barked sycamore. A stones throw
| from the house was big water mill. 1t be-
| longed with the estate, and it, too, was two
| generations old Higher up, the brook had
/ been partly turned off into a deep, clear mill
race The water glided down and turned the
| huge mill wheel as softly As if it was afraid
| of disturbing somebody's afternoon nap.
| Ah, those days were before the age of iron
| and steam.
| 1t was hereabout that successive families of
| Carstones had played The hiIlsides were
| covered still with forest. Shirley and the
| little ones played in their day as the others
| did before them. They darted in and out
| among the trees like squirrels. They played
| bopeep like spots of sunshine and shadow over
| the mill wheel They rode the colts bareback
| and ran races with the calves and the shaggy
| bouse dog. They whistled to the bob whites
and CaIDtEIS I'LL l1t tc1114CA c1 KNEW
not which was their own mate and which a
| little rogue of Carstone-
| In the spring they dug the turkey pea, the
| bloodroot and the fragrant smelling sassafras
| In the fall they gathered the paw paw and
| the hickory nut In the winter they set
| traus for rabbits and built snow forts or sat
| by the wide fireplace, where the blazing hick-
/ orv logs cracked, and guessed riddles When
| they parted for the night they sang the songs
| their mother taught them
| Not q tree In the forest but they knew from
its leaf: not flower or a shrub but they
named bv its name: not bird or wild
creature of the woods but they knew its
haunts and its habits
They had rnenagerie Of pets, these wood
land children There was Sherry, the tame
| crow. Sherry had whipped the poultry yard,
till every pullet ran and hid at the sight Of
him. He chased the hens from their nests
| and devoured the eggs. At odd spells he made
lunch off the buttons OF old Sans coat He
would alight upon the bare head Of that re
spectacle colored gentleman at wholly unex-
pected times and tangle his toes in the digni-
| fed gray wool. Then Sam howled with
wrath. Then. too, every curly headed Car
| stone lodged around the house, choking with
| hidden laughter, while the old man made
complaint to their father.
sFor de Lawd, If dat AZ crow don't stop his
foolishness dar'Il be dead bird roun' dis
i plantation, sho' An dem chillen latin fl
20 kill
There was Felix. the educated pig. whs